The Help or Not the Help
by GEM8
Summary: I would rather be a trader than what you are, Livvie. Cleaning up people's messes. Fixing up their lives You think they are your family but you're nothing but the help and you don't even know it. Olivia attempts to make Peace with the venomous words of Maya Pope.


Title: _ The Help or Not the Help_

Author: GEM

Date: 4-16-14

Pairing: Olivia/Fitz

Rating: T

Summary: I would rather be a trader than what you are, Livvie. Cleaning up people's messes. Fixing up their lives You think they are your family but you're nothing but the help and you don't even know it. Olivia attempts to make Peace with the venomous words of Maya Pope.

Disclaimer: Scandal is Property of Shonda Rimes and ABC et al.

A/N: Here is one shot to try to explain the one thing that I couldn't wrap my head around in 3.15 Tell me what you think.

A Fixer by definition is someone who intervenes to enable someone to circumvent the law or obtain a political favor. When Olivia decided to step away to allow Fitzgerald Grant to be a better man, she decided to do something with her life. She liked working for herself. She and her gladiators saw people on the worst days of their lives and they did the best they could to help them see the light on the next day.

Olivia Pope and Associates had been in business for four years and Olivia never questioned what they really did until today. There was only one person in the world that made her question her life, her very being and until recently Olivia Pope believed that woman to be dead. Her mother was a monster, her mother used her to get out of the country and now she was back. She was making Olivia question everything she thought she knew.

Olivia wanted to scream at her as she spoke to her on the phone inside the White House gates. _"I know you think you're on the right side of this, but you're not. Believe me you're not."_

Olivia still didn't know what game her mother was playing but there was no way she was getting Adnan back. "_What I know is that you are a terrorist. A traitor to your country. _ Olivia thought about all the things she had learned over the last few months. Her mother was a master manipulator. Her mother had her believing her father was the monster. Olivia talked Fitz into helping because her mother convinced her that her father was the monster. In reality her mother was the monster. She used Fitz. She wished that she had never made that call that night for the hotel parking lot but through it all. Fitz was the one constant. Fitz was always there in her life.

_Maybe, but I would rather be a traitor than what you are, Livvie. Cleaning up people's messes. Fixing up their lives You think they are your family but you're nothing but the help and you don't even know it."_ Olivia stood stunned by her mother's words. She had never felt so degraded in her life. She was not _the help_. At least, not in the context that her mother was implying. Yes, by definition a fixer did help people, but she was not _the help_.

"_You don't know what you're talking about."_ Olivia could hardly stand as she waited for her mother's next retort. She need to get inside. She need to talk to Fitz and see the kids and prepare them for the interview she no longer had time to spend talking to this woman in riddles.

"Oh, I do. I do and if that's all you want out of your life baby; I guess that's not my business so I'm going to stay out of it. Just as long as you stay out of mine. The line went dead on the other end. Olivia threw the phone in her purse in pure disgust and marched her way up to the West Wing entrance.

OOO

Four years is a lifetime in Washington D.C. Olivia was very happy with all the things that OPA had accomplished. They had a very extensive client list. Some of those clients were one time deals that Olivia wished had ended differently. Amanda Tanner, Jenny Nystorm, Sharon Marquette, and Nancy Drake, while all of them needed her help she wished they could have done better for them. They also had an extensive list of repeat clients. Verna Thornton, Will Caldwell, Sandra Harding, and of course The President himself. As much as Olivia tried to stay away from Fitz Grant, there worlds always seemed to collide. She is always ready to serve at the pleasure of the President. She is here serving once again give him and his family four more years in this house. In order to do that she has had to clean up some messes along the way but she never dreamed her mother's statement would come anywhere close to true until this moment. She followed Fitz back to the residence after he punched his Vice Presidential running mate in the face, for sleeping with Mellie. Olivia had been warning Andrew Nichols for days to stay away. She had caught them together just this morning and told him to stay away because this was the last thing she wanted to have to deal with less than an hour before air of one the biggest National interviews of the year. This interview could easily make or break this campaign. She paced outside the door, and listened to Fitz throw accusations that were not all false at his wife. She Listened to how he would have never stepped out on Mellie if it weren't for her actions all the while smiling and projecting an air of calm for the staff that walked by. _"What have you lost? What have you lost, Mellie? What have you lost?"_ Olivia needed to step in they were running out of time. She needed them to fix whatever was wrong and do this interview. The only problem was Olivia was uncertain if they or even she could fix the problem in time. She took a deep breath knocked on the door and stepped inside. She stood in the doorway while Fitz asked Mellie again what she had lost she could see the pain and anger written on his face. "I'm sorry to interrupt but we need to focus on the problem."

Fitz grilled Mellie again and again. "What have you lost?

"We have to sit down with the reporter." Olivia offered.

Fitz continued. "What have you lost?

"Fitz." Olivia said quietly trying to draw his attention away from Mellie.

Fitz turned around and snapped at Olivia. "I'm talking to my wife!" The moment the words left his mouth in the condescending, angry tone he wished he could take them back.

Olivia stood shocked looking at Fitz and she took a deep breath and nodded.

"Liv...I'm sorry." Fitz started walking toward Liv as she walked out of the room. She didn't wait. She didn't look back. She picked up her belongings and made a hasty exit out of the Residence.

OOO

Olivia walked to the White House gate as fast as she could. She knew she had a job. She knew she needed to be here but she couldn't. She just couldn't. He crossed the line and she didn't have any strength left to fight him, not today.

"Where are you going?" Cyrus stopped her and turned around to look at her.

She didn't want to stop. She needed to keep going. "Home." She answered abruptly

"Home?" Cyrus was barely holding on himself."You Can't" He couldn't go back in there and in order for him to get away to get out of the fog., he needed Liv to go back in there and do her job."

"Home Cyrus, I said Home."

"No, no, no, You can't." Cyrus didn't want to have to handle this now.

"Why?" Olivia said looked at Cyrus.

Cyrus looked at Liv. "Because if you go home, I can't go home. I don't mean to play the dead husband card, Liv, but I can't see through the fog right now. If I can't see though the fog then I can't do my job and if I can't do my job the sky will fall. I won't be able to stop it but you can; like or not Olivia Pope can." Cyrus could see the pain in Olivia's eyes. He could see the strong facade starting to break. "Play through the pain."

"Tell me we are not the help. Cyrus, I'm not some maid with a mop in my hand cleaning up messes whenever they ring the bell. If you could do that for me..."

"I'd be lying." Cyrus wasn't going to sugar coat the situation. Olivia Pope did not need to be sugar coated. The truth is they were all the help...all of them. They would not be where they were today if Fitzgerald Grant did not have their help. The President of the United State would not be able to run the country without the help of all the people who worked in the building behind them. It was not a job for one man. "You know the job, Liv. You know what we do."

"Don't you resent it?"

"Of course I resent it, but somewhere in this head of mine, behind the fog, behind the anger is my faint recollection that what we do is important; that my husband died for a reason. That his death matters so instead of going home and crying about it like I'm going to do. I need you to go back in there. I need you to go back in that little white building with all those miserable people inside of it and do the job for both of us. It's not just that family you're putting back together it's the whole damn country."

Olivia watched as Cyrus walked out of the gate and across the street. She took a few deep breaths steeling herself for what was about to happen as she walked back up to the little white building to a family, a country back together.

OOO

She walked into the residence and began searching for Fitz. She was working this was her job. She needed to make him understand that. He needed to understand that." She found him pacing in the dining room was his hands on his head and for a moment she wondered how long he had been like that. How long had he been beating himself up over how he treated her because she didn't need to ask to know that was what he was doing. When she opened the door and walked in he turned to her immediately his hands went to his side and his face softened. "Olivia." He said her name like a sigh of relief. He walked toward her. "I am so sorry. I let my anger spilt over. I should never..."

Olivia cut him off before he could get any further. If they wanted help. They would get help. "I'm working. I am at work. This is my job."

Fitz knew she was angry with him. He was angry with himself. "I didn't mean what I said."

"No." Olivia said firmly. She was hurt and she wasn't about to let him see how much it hurt. "Listen to me, all of this, your regret your apologies. You need to direct them toward your children; towards your wife." She continued to speak as he came closer.

He said her name. "Livvie."

She broke inside a little bit more. "We are twenty minutes away from an interview with a very important journalist that will make or break this campaign so right now you are going to fix your family because it is not my place." Olivia voice broke. She was the mistress, the help, "I am at work." Olivia continued as she tried to stay composed. "This is my job and if this interview fails then I fail at my job. I cannot afford to fail at my job, because my job is all I have left. Fitz looked at her and the stood silently together of a few seconds before Liv firmly said "Go."

Fitz left the room as he was asked in search of his wife so that he could put his family back together. He needed to do this for her. He needed to prove to Olivia that he was sorry, that she was good at her job and that needed her in this White House. He needs by his side to get thought this election.

The Interview went off without a hitch. The world would no doubt fall in love with the first family but it didn't make Olivia feel any better about herself. The interview as over and the television crew had gone home. She was walking out of the residence to do the same.

"Olivia." He voice was soft and full of pain.

"Mr. President." Olivia turned to him. She need to remain all business or she would break. She couldn't break not here, not this close to his family." Fitz walked up to her looking quickly in both directions before pulling her into his privative office and closing the door. "Fitz."

He looked the door and turned to her. "You have to know that I'm sorry."

"I know but that doesn't change anything. This is still my job and we shouldn't be in here, with the door locked. Your kids are down the hall."

Fitz approached her and put both hand on each of her arms before staring deep into her eyes. "We are fine in here. You need time to talk. I don't know what changed today but something did. You've been off all day. Talk to me Livvie. I know I've been an ass."

Olivia let him lead her to the sofa before talking to him. She felt as if she was going to break. She didn't know where her mother was. She couldn't admit that she had spoken to her...not to him so she had to speak in riddles. "I've spent all my life trying to be above board. I started OPA after I left the White House because wanted to help people, by definition a fixer is a helper. I never expected to become _the help._

Olivia watch Fitz face fall as understanding dawned on him. "You are not the help Livvie. There is nothing Sally Hemings about what you do. You are a smart, intelligent, gifted and beautiful woman. I never in my life every considered that you would feel this way about what you do. You see people on the worst days of their Lives, Livvie. You do far more for those that come to you then help. You are not the help...don't ever feel that you are. I know I can be an ass. I have done a lot of stupid things over the last few years but it was never my intention to make you feel like the help. You are not Sally Hemings Liv. You are much more than that to me." Fitz pulled her into an embrace. "Please remember that, no matter how this election ends remember that."

Liv pulled out of his embrace and looked at him with a sad smile. "I will." Olivia stood and walked toward the door. She unlocked and turned around. "You did very good tonight. You all did very good."

" Thank you Livvie, I'll see you tomorrow?" Truth be told in this moment he was afraid she wouldn't be back tomorrow. He stepped over line today. It was a line he never intended to ever cross with her and now he had to make it up to her.

Olivia nodded and smiled before walking out the door. "Good Night, Fitz."

"Good Night, Livvie."


End file.
